Business processes defined by business process models in modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems typically define several process steps. Many business processes have evolved from single-enterprise business processes into inter-connected and networked business processes involving numerous, geographically-distributed business entities. The execution of a complete business process model may take an extended period of time, include different manual activities, and involve more than one business entity. A business organization wishing to transition from an executing first business process model to a second business process model may face a situation where various process steps of the first business process model may have already executed and it would be impractical or impossible for the organization to immediately transition to the second business process model or to stop the first business process model.